If you have a friend, things are better than if you didn't have a friend.

Anyone who has problems, or worries, anyone who laughs and cries, anyone who feels can write. It's only talking on paper... talking about the things that matter to us.

I loved teaching. It was my world. I only left because I was overwhelmed with three careers - teaching, writing, and my family.

Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times.

To me, family is everything. I want children to realize how important their families are and what a support system a family is.

Everything in my life affects my writing. There are no separate parts of my life.

Many times in my life I've been upset about something and said to myself, "Will this matter in two years?" Not even in two months.

I myself was terrified during the Second World War. The war started when I was six, and I was so sure that we were going to be bombed and killed. My imagination is my biggest plus and my worst minus.

I have no special talent, you know. I never took a writing course before I began to write.

Outside of family, writing is essential. To me, it's like breathing.

I cannot outline. I do not know what the next thing is going to happen in the book until it comes out of my fingers.

When someone beats a rug, the blows are not against the rug, but against the dust in it.

The successful man is he who when he sees that no further certainty is attainable promptly decides on the most probable side as if he were completely sure it was right.

Glory is a scandal. Let me state once & for all: I do not wish to be civilized.

Don't worry mom . I am still a virgin.

I was told by a physician to avoid any line of work where people need to, um, depend on me for anything.

I regret that a private comment I made to the vice presidential candidate made it through the public airways.

When you go to a Japense wedding, make sure that you tie the ribbon on the present tightly because if you don't, you may imply that you don't think the marriage will last.

[Allegory] is a flight by which the human wit attempts at one and the same time to investigate two objects, and consequently is fitted only to the most exalted geniuses.

Outside, a gusty October breeze was combing leaves from the trees and sending them across her backyard in colorful skitters.